Unconditional (4 page)

Chapter Four

Five years before

I
t had been
at the graduation party of her roommate of five years, Bianca Sherman, when Rinah first laid eyes on Dominic. Having only arrived from England the day before, after finishing her undergraduate law degree from the University of Cambridge, Rinah was still a bit jet-lagged from the nine-hour flight and six-hour time difference. Her internal clock was reminding her that it was well past her bedtime.

She’d always thought it was the combination of jet lag and her feeling of homesickness that had contributed to the intense reaction she’d felt upon seeing him for the first time.

Bianca was from the Bahamas and had asked her to spend a few days at her home in Nassau after graduation. Rinah was to return home to Trinidad two days later. She was feeling the weight of that decision already because she missed her own friends and family, having been away for more than a year. Watching Bianca surrounded by her people made her feel the loss even more acutely. Her mother had visited her in London for the graduation ceremony, but she hadn’t seen her father since she last visited home. He’d been too sick to travel the long distance to London. She’d always been closest to her father, as big and jovial as her mother was petite and serenely soft-spoken. Rinah’s cheeks ached from manufactured smiles and a pretend gaiety she was far from feeling.

In the tropical garden of the opulent home, which was situated on the eastern side of the island, Bianca’s parents were pulling out all the stops in a lavish party for more than three hundred guests, celebrating the graduation of their only child from law school. The girls had bonded on that fact, of being an only child. They had formed a close friendship during their years at university.

Bianca’s parents were both lawyers. Her father was a local politician and a partner of his own law firm, and her mom a Supreme Court judge. The party featured an array of political figures, bankers, prominent business people, accountants, lawyers, doctors—basically the who’s who of the island.

“One would think this party is for my parents and not for me,” Bianca muttered, irritated by their using the opportunity to network, yet again. “But don’t worry, Rin, I’ve got us covered! We’re having my real party with a few friends later tonight.” Bianca whispered with a mischievous glint in her dark eyes.

Rinah’s mind boggled at the thought of having an even longer evening after this drama.

They mingled and she was dragged around in Bianca’s wake. After being introduced to so many people, names and faces became blurred and Rinah barely paid attention to what was being said to her. She smiled and responded politely to questions asked, so was ill-prepared when she came face to face with Dominic.

They had approached him and a group of other men, as they stood conversing near the edge of the pool. Rinah was so overwhelmed by the sheer, physical impact of his presence, she could still not remember who the other men in the group had been. Her eyes were captured by his immediately, and there was no power on earth that could have broken his hold on her senses at that moment. He had completely ensnared her. She was drowning in his cool, silvery gaze.

In her stunned, bemused state, conversation continued around her in droning, muted sounds, as he refused to release her from his penetrating regard. She felt trapped, cocooned by the intensity of his stare. She hoped no one could hear the loud beating of her heart, and the choppy panting of her breathing. Overwhelmed, she reeled under the sensual overload.

Rinah had never encountered a man so beautiful in her life, and he was beautiful. Not handsome, but intensely beautiful. He simply took her breath away. She was no stranger to attractive men, because her own striking beauty had attracted them all her life. It was often irritating, being gawked at constantly, if not for her face, certainly for her generous figure. Despite her tall, willowy build, she felt she had been cursed with breasts that were embarrassingly too big for her frame and hips too provocatively curvaceous. She’d always hated the nickname “bootylicious”, but she knew that was how she was often viewed.

But this man was all man. His masculine beauty was eclipsed only by his powerful, six-foot-three, imposing frame. He made her feel acutely feminine, small, and for once grateful for gift of her own good looks. His air of aloof distain intrigued her, she was forced to admit.

Words were initially caught in her throat. But with sheer determination, she forced a response to the introduction. She noted that while he looked at her, maintaining eye contact, his reply to the introduction was rather abrupt. He did nothing to encourage further conversation or interest. In fact, he seemed slightly dismissive, irritated by the girls’ intrusion.

As they moved away from the group, she got the impression that he looked at her, noted that she was a lovely girl. But then he appeared to place her in the category of schoolgirl without substance, and therefore not particularly interesting or worthy of his exalted attention. She had no idea what Bianca thought as he’d stared at her—as they’d stared at each other—because she didn’t comment on it or acknowledged that it had occurred. Everyone else seemed to be oblivious to their monumental encounter as well. Embarrassed by her uncharacteristic response to a man, she was grateful the others hadn’t been aware of the undercurrents. Never having been remotely attracted to a white man, she didn’t understand her instant infatuation with this one. Not that she’d had much experience with men, but she’d thought only men of color would have interested her.

Bianca tried to move her along to another group of acquaintances, but instead, Rinah dragged her away from everyone. She needed to think, to get her equilibrium back. Dominic’s attitude infuriated her, and to her disgust, she couldn’t quell the pounding of her heart. The yearning evoked by just simply looking at him stunned her, as did her ultrasensitive nipples and an insistent tingling in her pelvis. She didn’t know how to cope with the onslaught of emotions. On the one hand, she was angry as hell at his lack of response to her, but on the other, she found him so incredibly hot!

Her parents had been strict and had curtailed her association with the opposite sex as much as possible. She had always been a beautiful child, according to her parents. It seemed that she’d metamorphosed into a woman overnight. By the time she turned fourteen, she had breasts and hips that attracted unwelcome attention. Her parents went into protective mood, shielding her. And despite being given some freedom by attending university in another country, she had, for some unknown reason, maintained their strict dictates. As a result, at twenty-three years old, she had still not been on a real date, nor had she even been kissed properly. The longer she waited, the more introverted and awkward she became around men.

“Rinah, girl, tell me you ain’t trippin’ over Dominic Stone!” Bianca muttered in disbelief, looking closely at her for the first time since the encounter. Bianca’s chocolate brown eyes and short-cut, sassy, black hair gleamed from the lanterns placed about the grounds. Taller by a few inches, Rinah stood looking down at her friend.

“Trust me, you don’t want to fall for that player. He’s a heartbreak waiting to happen and not worth the pain that man will put you through.”

Rinah just continued staring back at her, shell-shocked, and unable to articulate what she was feeling.

Bianca hissed through her teeth in disgust. “You’re such an innocent! Girl, you know you can’t handle a man like that one. Too many women on this island have been there, and gotten badly burned. They’ve all realized too late that he is a cold bastard, loving no one and unwilling to commit to any relationship. In fact, he lets them all know he’s not interested in a relationship, just hitting it and moving on,” Bianca continued, pulling her deeper in the garden to a more secluded area that afforded some privacy.

Finally finding her voice, Rinah had to defend her moment of weakness. “Did you see those eyes? He’s so beautiful. And with that air of danger about him…my God, Bianca, do you honestly expect me to be unaffected?” Rinah shivered delicately and looked at her friend in total bemusement, her brain refusing to comprehend anything Bianca was trying to say to her.

“You’re not the same girl who said that any woman who falls for a guy because he’s good-looking is an idiot, right? You’re not the same girl who said that all beautiful men are either gay or are so in love with themselves, that women should avoid them like the plague?” Bianca snorted.

“Yeah, well, obviously I said that in total ignorance, because there isn’t a woman alive looking at a man as brutally masculine as that one, who could possibly resist basking in his presence. He looks like a man’s man. Nothing remotely gay there.” She smiled at her little joke, and shook her head in wonder as she finally emerged from her dazed state. “But I was right, Bianca! I will concede he is probably not gay, but he
is
most definitely full of himself. What was I thinking? Thanks for the verbal slap, girlfriend.” She grinned at her friend, already restored to good humor. It was nice to finally find the hilarity in her reaction to the tantalizing Dominic Stone.

“No problem. Any time. Besides, that man is mine!” Bianca joked.

“What?”

“He thinks I’m too young, but now that I’ve finished school, I intend to have some of that! Daddy would probably have a heart attack if I brought home a man like Dominic!” Bianca laughed slyly as she looked across the vast lawn, devouring him with her eyes and licking her lips as if she could taste him already.

She went on to explain that Dominic was not a native Bahamian, but had moved to the Islands with his parents when he was a little boy. His father and another gentleman, Adam Kouris, had been partners in several diamond mines in South Africa. Their company was headquartered in the Bahamas. But while Victor, Adam’s son, had followed his father into the business, Dominic had wanted no part of that operation.

It was rumored that father and son had had a volatile relationship, which had gotten even more so because of his father’s ill-treatment of his mother. Trying to cope with her husband’s repeated infidelity and violence, his mother had worked long hours in her job as head of her Russian family’s shipping business. Finally, unable to handle the humiliating abuse any longer, his mother committed suicide when he was thirteen, and Dominic had been sent to military school soon after. A violent fight with his father at his mother’s funeral had prompted the action. Dominic inherited the shipping business from his mother upon her death. But given the conflict between husband and wife, his mother ensured her husband had no access to her family’s empire. She entrusted the running of the company to a group of executives until Dom could assume the helm.

Dominic had returned to the island after his father’s death four years ago. After inheriting his father’s interest in the diamond mines, he sold the shares to Victor. What he had done during the intervening years, no one knew, other than that he was a retired U.S. Navy SEAL. His air of latent menace, chilling detachment, and being man of a few words, caused many to fear him. He attracted women in droves and men gave him a wide berth.

“Well, you’re welcome to him. I’m going home in two days, anyway, and will probably never see him again.” She pretended an indifference she was far from feeling. She was now even more fascinated and attracted to the mysterious soldier.

Rinah refused to acknowledge the unsettling feeling that surfaced in her stomach at the thought of Bianca sinking her tentacles into him. She loved her roommate, but she also knew that Bianca went through men faster than she changed her underwear. But as Bianca so clearly indicated, Dominic Stone probably excelled in such sophisticated relationships.

Rinah maintained her composure as they spent another two hours mingling and making small talk, all without encountering Dominic again at the party. But his allure was never far from her thoughts.

Bianca was determined to have their own post-graduation celebration, so she insisted they hit the club scene later that night. Nassau offered an array of casinos and nightclubs, so they had a few interesting options to choose from.

Unfortunately for Rinah, she was still feeling the fatigue of their long flight from England and the past few months of intense studies, which added to her woes. She was definitely not up for the type of party Bianca was determined to experience. However, she couldn’t decline her friend’s invitation without appearing like a spoilsport, or worse, an ungrateful guest.

They were accompanied by three of Bianca’s girlfriends. From the time they’d arrived at the exclusive club, Bianca and her other girlfriends were in complete party mode. Everything was being done in excess: the dancing, the alcohol, the men—they were determined on partying to the max. The more outrageous the activity, the better. They were rich girls from prominent families, and the word “restraint” didn’t enter their vocabulary. Rinah was completely out of her depth and ill-equipped to handle the environment she found herself in.

Her father had been a diplomat for a number of years and she’d traveled extensively with her parents to each new post. The longest assignment he’d had was in the United States, at the Trinidadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. In fact, she had been born in Washington and spent most of her childhood there. But nothing in those experiences had prepared her for such debauchery.

The girls engaged in a seemingly unending number of tequila shots and other alcoholic beverages that she had never even heard of. They compounded their efforts with the snorting of cocaine in the bathroom of the posh club, and encouraged men to take liberties that would have made her blush, if she hadn’t already been furious with Bianca for dragging her into this mess. Sitting alone in a corner, observing the spectacle that her friend was making, and completely disgusted, she got up to leave. Tired of being harassed and being made fun of for refusing to participate, she knew her best course of action would be to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. She had the address of Bianca’s parents’ house, and she intended to get a cab and return there.